


Stranded, the remix

by Rae_Saxon



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Comfort?, Fluff, Humour, M/M, Slight mention of Stalking, Slight mention of the police being corrupt bastards, The Master pretending to be O for a while, Thirteen gets a guest appearance, just as a warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24776299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rae_Saxon/pseuds/Rae_Saxon
Summary: The Doctor is stranded on Earth with his companions Liv and Helen and can't get his TARDIS to work again. The Master is stranded on Earth because the thirteenth Doctor and stole his TARDIS. They decide they might as well be a bit less miserable by spending their time together.
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 73





	Stranded, the remix

**Author's Note:**

> So basically, I listened to the first 3 stories of Stranded, which is a Big Finish boxset of the Doctor in panic while stranded in 2020 on Earth, going crazy with nothing to do and mentioning the Master exactly once. So I went and wrote this 5000 words alternate version with the Master being there. It's based on Stranded and has some events and lines from it in here, but I believe I wrote it perfectly understandable for those of you who haven't listened (yet).

When the Doctor crashed onto Earth, it caused ripples in reality making the Master shake to his very core. He felt it immediately, immediately _knew_ he was close, for the first time in almost 70 years.

Well.

That, and the surveillance cameras he had installed in the house the Doctor owned in Baker Street.

The Doctor had rarely ever been in there, of course and so the modern people of London had turned it into several flats and rented it out to rather... annoying tenants.

The Master had managed to set an alarm, though, for whenever the Doctor snowed in, undoubtedly completely out of the loop about his own home and the changes it had gone through.

What he hadn't expected, however, was the Doctor being just as stranded on Earth as he was.

This opened a lot of doors to escape, of course, but it also opened a lot of new possibilities.

The Master made a point of walking by the apartment building deliberately casual. Around seventeen times. Until, finally, he “coincidentally” ran into the Doctor, who was just leaving the house.

“Oh, hello,” the Master started. “Isn't it just a lovely...”

“Yes yes,” the Doctor cut him off bitterly. “So I have been told.”

Without another look at him, he had walked past him, calling “I'll be back” over his shoulder.

The Master stood, frozen in place, staring at the spot the Doctor had still stood mere seconds ago.

“What?” he asked.

He watched the cameras a little more closely, afterwards. The Doctor had crashed with two women who he vaguely remembered having met before, both of them a tad boring, even by the Doctor's low standards. Constantly nagging him though, which the Master supposed, was one good thing.

It quickly became vividly clear that the Doctor was a bloody hypocrite.

“Any of your neighbour's names, Doctor. Name any of them,” Helen asked, her arms crossed, making the Doctor squirm uncomfortably.

“I can do that! Well there's... there's... the boy.”

“The boy?” Liv added, raising an eyebrow. “That's all?”

“His name is Robin,” Helen sighed. “And he only moved in today with his dad. Really, would it hurt you to show a little bit of interest in your neighbours? It's been six weeks! You're not talking to any of them!”

“I _am_ talking to them! I say hello. Sometimes.”

They rolled their eyes at that and so did the Master. Centuries, he thought, centuries of being lectured over the beauty of humanity and their best specimen, and here he was, being just as fed up with them and their constant chatter as the Master had always been.

“Insignificant,” he breathed towards the monitor. “I knew you'd get it.”

Now, of course, there was still the little problem of the Doctor assuming that he was just as insignificant as they were.

The next time he “accidentally” ran into the Doctor, he did it the right way; by literally running into him, forcing the Doctor to stop, regain his balance and apologise, a hand on his shoulder, as he was trying to steady him.

Much better.

“It's alright, don't worry, it's fine,” he smiled, with a bright smile towards the Doctor – One of his brightest, actually. It had already worked on pinstripe and his female incarnation, so he knew it'd get this one weak too. “Actually, I was hoping for a chance to talk to you, ever since we met the other day.”

The Doctor blinked.

“Oh. We met?”

The Master forced himself to a little laugh ( _typical_ ).

“Yes, the other day? You seemed in quite a hurry.”

“Oh, right, yes, I remember! Of course. Yes! You.” The Doctor had the unmistakable air of someone very badly pretending to remember and the Master had to force himself to not roll his eyes at him.

“Yeah. It's just... You caught my eye, you know?” he brought out with a nervous little laugh.

One of O's specialities.

“I did? Well, it's the hair, I get that all the time...”

The Master nodded patiently.

“Well, would you and your hair like to go out some day, maybe?”

“We're already out.” The Doctor froze, frowning, trying to process the words and their meaning, no doubt, before his eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, you mean... oh. No. You see, I'm quite... busy, at the moment.” He pointed into a vague direction above the Master's shoulders.

“Taking rounds in the park?” he asked, making the Doctor lower his arm slowly. “Yeah, I saw you.” Another charming smile in his direction – If there was one thing he was good at, it was masking light stalking as a charming character trait of a nervous and mildly interested sweetheart. He had a lot of practise in that department. He grinned at the memory of his Doctor files lying around openly right in front of the Doctor and her pets. “You seem a bit stuck.”

“Stuck,” the Doctor repeated, snorting bitterly. “Yes, that describes it rather well.”

They looked at each other quietly and the Master sighed, deciding to take a step back. Socialising was all about compromises, after all.

“How about I walk with you a little? Through the park?”

“Oh, I don't know, I'm a... rather fast walker. People rarely manage to keep up.”

“Try me,” the Master grinned, even though he didn't feel like grinning at all.

“Ah well...” the Doctor stammered, clearly running out of polite excuses. “Why not, then?”

The Doctor didn't walk particularly fast at all, instead, he walked with sunken shoulders and the resign of a trapped man on his face, as he confidently led them on the ever same paths through the park.

The Master sighed.

it had certainly been true that the Doctor had spent most of the last few days in here, going in circles, trying to keep himself from falling apart. It was odd. He had originally installed the cameras to simply be alerted when the Doctor showed up, so he could steal his TARDIS and escape his own miserable exile. But now that he was walking side by side with the Doctor, his own time on Earth almost about to be over, he could find himself in those tormented eyes.

He had been there, 70 years ago, trapped on Earth without a way of escape, no perspective other than having to wait for the time to be over, so he could return to the Doctor and take the perfect revenge on her for stealing his TARDIS.

Not too far back, he had been the person to walk in circles, trying to cope with suddenly being stuck, when his whole life had been wandering, chasing, adventuring. The lack of stimulus had very nearly driven him insane(r). And he could recognise the same signs in the Doctor's eyes just now, as he stared at the trapped animals behind the bars, clearly contemplating letting them run out into the open.

It wasn't as satisfying as he had hoped it would be.

“So,” he finally asked, after a while of comfortable silence. “Care to tell me what brought you to such circling despair?”

The Doctor's gaze rushed towards him, just shortly, before going back to the zoo in front of them.

“Not particularly. No offence.”

“Maybe I can help?” the Master offered.

“I doubt that. Unless you have a miracle time machine standing in your basement.”

Nope, the Master thought bitterly. Thanks to you.

“Well, I wouldn't ever claim to be able to solve your problems, especially when they involve time travel,” he replied with a slight laugh. “But sometimes a bit of company and just... talking about things. Being understood. It helps, right?”

At least that's what you constantly claim in your endless lectures about compassion, the Master added in his mind.

“I'm very rarely understood,” the Doctor replied carefully.

The Master had to actually turn his head away to hide his exasperated expression.

“Again,” he finally brought out, turning back to the Doctor after having disguised the movement with a cough. “Try me.”

The Doctor shrugged.

“I am trapped in this... this life, this... illusion of freedom, but it's not mine. It's not what I'm meant to do, what I want to do, this is not where I want to be. And I... just can't find a way out. I frustrate my friends. I let them down. I'm very much useless here. I'm useless like this.”

The words had stumbled out of his mouth so quickly, it was obvious that he had apparently been burning for a possibility to finally speak them into existence.

“I hardly think you're...” the Master started again but the Doctor interrupted him with an annoyed wave, clearly not looking for reassurances.

“What use is a hero without a villain? What use am I in ordinary life?”

The Master let out a short breath, shaking his head.

Idiot.

“What do you mean, what _use_?” he finally asked. “Why do you have to have more use than being a friend to your friends? A hero for _whom_ , Doctor? You don't have to be the hero, you don't have to be useful, you just have to go through this and come out alright on the other side.”

The Doctor looked up from the cages around them for the very first time, giving him a calculating glance.

“How do you know that?”

The Master shrugged. “It's just common sense, isn't it?”

_Which you lack, massively._

But the Doctor shook his head.

“My name. I never told you my name.”

 _Oh_.

“Uhm. I met... what's her name? Helen? She mentioned you, I think.”

“She never mentioned meeting you to me.”

“She wouldn't,” the Master replied with a shrug. “She's too frustrated with you.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and the Master, angry with himself, sighed.

“Really, is it that hard to believe that I am interested in you?”

“Not really.”

The Master came to a halt, almost stumbling over his own feet, staring at the Doctor in disbelief, who started laughing.

“I didn't mean... I mean... a lot of people are interested in me. I'll admit I don't particularly understand why.... always.”

“Tad arrogant, are we?” the Master laughed, because it was his best shot at pretending that he had only noticed that now.

“And look at you,” the Doctor replied, a little smile playing around his lips – His first genuine smile since he had landed here. “Still interested.”

That night, the Master lay awake scheming for hours, his arm behind his head as he thought back to the day they had spent in the park, lips curled up to a smile. He felt as alive as he hadn't had in years. The Doctor was here, didn't know who he was, opened up to him slowly. It was perfect. The basis of a perfect plan, handed to him on a silver platter.

He was just about to think up the perfect reveal – possibly during snogging, oh, the _impact_ it would have – when his phone was ringing next to him on the night stand.

The Master blinked in confusion, looking at the screen.

The Doctor was calling.

No, that was just ridiculous. Did he know? The Doctor hadn't called him in ages, not since... was _she_ calling? No way to tell which Doctor it was, really, that was one of the disadvantages of time travelling. He couldn't risk answering it, of course. Several of his disguises could get ruined in the process.

So he waited it out. Waited it out until his screen turned black again and the little blue, blinking light signalled to him that he had a message on his mail box and five unread messages on his Whatsapp.

Well. That was safe enough, surely.

The Whatsapp messages were from the Doctor, clearly not meant for him in this time frame, but for O, back when she still believed he was him.

Every once in a while, they got lost in the vortex and sent to him instead, and he had never particularly minded. Life on Earth was boring and the Doctor's messages.... so weren't.

_“Hey, i'm drnk.”_

_“I took picrures, wanna see?”_

_“Pictires.”_

_“Pictures!”_

He looked at it with a light little smile. She was, very clearly, drunk, hair was falling into her face, her suspenders were hanging down, a patch of skin visible between trousers and pulled up rainbow shirt, as she posed with a serious – and very adorable – expression on her face, slightly numbed from the alcohol.

He could send it to his past self easily, but he just sent back a little _“Beautiful <3”_ back and pretended he didn't mean it, before turning to the voice mail next.

It was from the Doctor, too. The other one. He never had had two Doctors competing over his attention. The Master smirked.

“ _Oh. Mh. Hello. You're not answering. I didn't expect you to, to be honest. I just called to say hello, really. Not sure which version of you I'm getting. Then of course, I can be lucky this call gets through at all, considering the state of my TAR... Ah, never mind. You're probably not interested in this. It's just... all awfully like UNIT. Me, stuck on... Never mind that, too, really. It's just something Helen said. That I'm not quite myself without a villain around. And I'm terribly bored. So she might have a point. You're not... not around, by any chance? Earth, that is? I think, you know, I think I rather m-”_

The Master turned to his side, staring at the phone with a wide, childlike grin. The message had cut off at the most vital part, but he thought he had gotten the gist of it.

“Don't worry, Doctor,” he mumbled into the darkness of his room. “I'm always there if you need a villain.”

He fell asleep rather peacefully, for once, his mind filled with more images of them snogging – for purely evil purposes, of course.

When the Master showed up to pick the Doctor up for another walk through the park, he met Helen and Liv out on the stairs.

_Please no, no small talk, oh no._

“Oh, are you here to pick the Doctor up?” Helen asked with a smile.

He silently braced himself. It seemed he couldn't escape it.

“Uhm. Yes. Did he mention...?”

“Mention?” Liv snorted. “He boasted about you all evening. I think he's using you as evidence that he is actually capable of making friends outside of his attic.”

 _Friends_.

“Oh, well. Happy to help,” he replied, putting on a slightly awkward smile and turning away from the two women.

“We didn't think you actually existed,” Helen admitted with a grin and the Master turned back around, his eyebrows raised.

“You should get used to the idea,” he replied in a tone that wasn't very O at all. “Because I'm not going anywhere.”

“She got shot recently, did you know that? My friend Liv?” The Doctor was like a clogged up well. Ever since he had removed the blockage, all he did was bubbling without stop.

He didn't mind terribly much.

“I heard. She seems to be alright now, though?”

“She is, she is, fortunately,” the Doctor replied distractedly. “I let her down. Wasn't there to protect her. I was so upset, I couldn't even visit her in the hospital, you know, couldn't look her in the eyes.”

Who cares, the Master thought.

“That must've been horrible.”

“Yes. Yes, quite. I just... can't get it in my head, you know? Such an ordinary way to almost go. One single bullet. The Eleven tried murdering her, the Master tried, but in the end, it was that little bullet, almost capable of doing what they weren't.”

“Excuse me?” the Master brought out with a slightly higher pitched voice. “I am perfectly capable of...”

The Doctor looked at him in confusion.

“... of.... of... Oh, this is ridiculous.” The Master came to a halt in front of a cage they had passed for the third time now. “How long are you gonna make me go in circles staring at these cursed animals, talking about your boring friends. I can't even keep them apart! They sound exactly the same, do you know that? Everything they say. Exactly the same.”

The Doctor stared at him, stunned, his mouth fallen open.

“I tried to murder her? Great! I don't _remember_ , Doctor. That's how bloody boring they are. Just as bloody boring as these animals!” He stretched out his arms, pointing at the cages. “We get it. It's a metaphor. You're trapped, they're trapped, it's all very dramatic. Get a telescope, stare at the stars like a normal homesick renegade and stop. Walking. In. Circles.”

“Uhm,” the Doctor replied, clearly unsure what to say.

The Master gulped.

Now, that was not exactly the reveal he had planned out in his head... but he could still turn this around.

With an annoyed hiss, he grabbed the Doctor by the lapels and kissed him.

“So... you're the Master? Really the Master?”

He rolled his eyes.

“For the 100th time now, Doctor, yes! You called me, remember?”

“Yes. But after I had already met you.”

The Master mumbled something under his breath that sounded like “Time Travel” and hoped it would be vague enough to cover his tracks.

Certainly enough, the Doctor didn't pursue the issue any longer.

“It's just, the last time I met you, you were rather...”

“Bald?” the Master offered. “Old?” He groaned. “American?”

The Doctor laughed. “Yup to all three of those. You've really had some... phases, huh?”

He gave him a cautious side glance.

“That's nothing,” he replied with a grin. “Wait until you meet Mary Poppins me.”

“Hey,” the Doctor suddenly called out, jumping off the bench they had sat down on – after a lot of making out. “Hey! But that's... that means I can escape from here! I can get off. I bet with a bit of energy from your TARDIS, I could easily get mine going again and...”

The Master couldn't help himself, he started chuckling. And at the startled expression, the blind hope in the Doctor's eyes, his chuckle grew into a full-grown crazy laugh, making him shake and bend over on the bench.

“What's so funny?” the Doctor asked with a disapproving sulk.

“Karma,” the Master brought out, wiping away a tear of laughter.

The Doctor didn't say anything, just got very still as he watched him calm down.

Finally, the Master turned to him with a wide, cynical grin on his face.

“I don't have my TARDIS. _You_ stole it from me 70 years ago. Will steal it.” He sniffed. “I'll steal it back, though. Only seven more years to go.” He gave him a wink, finding the situation more than comical – it was downright hilarious.

Until a smug expression spread out on the Doctor's face.

“So you didn't have a TARDIS to do 'Time Travel' at all?”

“Nope. Stuck like a bird without its wings.”

“So you _did_ come to meet me before I made the phone call.”

Well, the Master thought as he looked into the Doctor's self-satisfied grin. He had always hated Karma.

It was almost a shame that the Doctor hadn't showed up earlier. It was a purely evil pleasure, of course. Watching him squirm and suffer on Earth, while having arranged himself with his own situation decades ago and slowly nearing its end.

It had nothing to do with having missed him, having been utterly miserable and being disappointed that the best part of his exile had only started so late.

And the certain lack of evil plans could easily be explained by just being awfully busy with dinners with Helen and Liv and Tania and the Doctor, which somehow happened regularly now.

He just dragged him into them every time they came up and the Master, scheming, well-practised villain that he was, decided it was very vital to be close to one's enemies. _Immensely_ close.

“No, really,” Liv laughed. “You should've seen it. The true danger for me wasn't getting shot at the robbery. It was the Doctor's attempt at cooking.”

“I really wasn't that bad,” the Doctor insisted, a fork of pasta that had been halfway on the way to his mouth now swishing through the air as he waved it around accusingly. “I chopped the tomatoes and the garlic just like you told me.”

“And what else did I tell you?” Liv asked, a smirk on her usually so stoic face.

The Doctor mumbled something not even the Master could make out, but he didn't have to.

“Don't set anything on fire, that's right,” Liv repeated loudly, making Helen and Tania laugh. “And what did you do?”

“Nothing, I rushed out the second I had heard that you were attacked and...”

“The kettle was black, with ashes of garlic and tomatoes stuck to it, all burnt up, Doctor. Don't try to talk your way out of it.”

“Alright, alright,” the Doctor gave up with a laugh, raising his hands in defeat – Pasta flew from his fork onto the Master's lap. “I can't cook. I'll admit it.”

“Course not,” the Master mumbled, while fishing the pasta off his trousers with a paper towel. “Why would you ever let that amount of chaos into a kitchen?”

They all laughed at that and the Master watched them carefully, expecting them to mock him, somehow, but they were just perfectly amused, drinking their wine and grinning at the Doctor.

God, he hated them all.

Tania got up after a while, collecting the dishes. “I think it's my turn washing up,” she announced, humming happily as she walked off into the kitchen. “Care to help me, Doctor?”

“Oh, sure,” the Doctor replied, getting up hastily. “If my level of chaos is allowed near the sink?”

“Sinks are perfectly fine,” the Master retorted sweetly, their faces close together as he smiled mockingly at the Doctor. “Even you can't set water on fire.”

“You just wait,” he grumbled, before walking into the kitchen, leaving the ladies giggling.

“It's really great he's found you, you know that, O?” Helen said after a while. “You're good for him. He's not been this happy and lively ever since we.... moved here.”

The Master stiffened, trying to swallow down his wine.

“Good for him? I'm hardly...”

“Plus,” Liv grinned, not listening to him. “Tania and I love our double dates.”

“Dates?” the Master spluttered, while Helen rolled her eyes.

“Yes, and I love being the fifth wheel.”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Liv gave back, while the Master desperately tried not to suffocate on his sip of wine, coughing hard. “You're part of the family.”

When the Doctor and Tania returned, the group had relocated to Liv's sofa. They found Liv and Helen happily chatting, while the Master sat in the middle, pale and very quiet, sipping on his fifth glass of wine.

“Everything alright?” the Doctor asked as he slid down next to him, his voice low.

The Master shrugged without looking at him, his gaze still dark.

“Did they say something?” he whispered but the Master shook his head once, very jerkily, before taking another sip of wine.

Slightly worried, Liv and Helen looked over to them, not noticing Tania sitting on the edge of the sofa with her arms crossed.

“Come on,” the Doctor asked after a whole while of uncomfortable silence. He had decided to walk the Master home, get some night air and alone time out of it, obviously, but the Master had his hands in his pockets, quiet. “Tell me what's wrong.”

“They think we're... we're...” the Master brought out, but couldn't find himself to bring out the words.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

“A couple?”

“Yes. Well. Yeah. Doesn't it... did you know that?”

Shrugging, the Doctor walked on.

“I didn't tell them that, if that's what you're worried about. You know humans and their assumptions. I can't very well tell them who you really are, they're not exactly your biggest fan,” he added.

“Well. Good,” the Master spit back. “They shouldn't be. I'm evil!”

“A ruthless mastermind,” the Doctor hummed in agreement, nodding hastily.

“Exactly!”

They walked in silence for a while, but the air between them seemed to have cleared a little.

“Tania had a talk with me in the kitchen,” the Doctor finally said when they had reached the Master's entrance door. “Pulled me aside to tell me that – someone – had informed her that you were not who you pretended to be and that you were, in fact, can you believe it, my arch nemesis, the Master.”

He frowned.

“How does she know?”

“I don't know,” the Doctor shrugged. “First time I met her, I assumed she was working with UNIT, but that doesn't seem to be it. She works with someone, though. No threat, I think. For me anyway.”

He smirked.

The Master hesitated.

“What... did you tell her?”

“I told her that I knew perfectly well who and what I was dating and that everything's gonna be fine. And I asked her not to tell Liv. They're very close, I don't want them to lie to each other, but....”

He let the words fall away. There was no need to go on, they both knew that hell would broke loose once Liv found out who he really was. And that would be the end of their comfy.... double... had he said _dating_?

“Doctor?” he asked, hesitantly, his hand already on the door knob. So easy to just go in and flee from the situation.

“Yes?”

“Are we a couple?” the Master asked, genuine confusion in his voice that seemed to make the Doctor smile.

“Well, I was planning on kissing you goodnight, I believe that's a very couple-y thing to do, in human terms, anyway.”

“Oh you were, were you?” A little grin sneaked onto the Master's face. He could handle this, this was familiar territory. Snogging was his expertise. One of his many expertises. “How about we do that inside?” He pushed open his door, offering it to the Doctor, who stood still with a little frown.

“No, I think in the movies and all that, they usually do that outside, unless...”

The Master waited, patiently, until understanding spread out on the Doctor's face. “Oh. Yes. Well. I'll be happy to.”

With a roll of his eyes, he grabbed the insufferable idiot by the neck and pulled him inside with a kiss he was planning to definitely _not_ let end when they had reached his bedroom.

The Master had read a lot ever since he had been stuck on Earth, it was practically all he had done. He had missed some of his favourite books and had absolutely hated waiting for them for fifty years, but now that they finally had been written, he found it very difficult to concentrate on them, with the Doctor's head in his lap, hands in those curls that were slowly growing back into the short cut hair, and beautiful grey eyes watching him attentively.

He tugged at his curls gently, playfully and finally let his book sink down with a smile.

“Is it true that you went into the police officer's office and announced that you're a genius who could do their job with ease and that they're surely doing their best, but _'it's not exactly saving the universe, is it?'_ “

“Oh,” the Doctor let out a little laugh. “Yeah. He didn't really react pleasantly to it. I wasn't sure why, but now that you're saying it like that... Who told you that? Was it Helen?”

“No, my boss,” the Master replied, picking his book back up and turning over a page despite not having read a single word on the one before.

“Your boss?” the Doctor asked, confusion clear on his face.

“Yeah, I work for the police.”

He laughed so hard at that, the Master could feel his whole body shake in his lap.

“You?” he finally brought out. “Police?”

The Master shrugged. “I needed something to do and they're corrupt enough for it to be fun. Also stupid. Really bad at their jobs.”

“I know. That's why I wanted to help find Liv's attacker.... Oh, is that how they found him so fast?”

The Master grinned.

“Wasn't that hard, considering I'm a genius. Basically child's play. They're doing their best, but it's not exactly destroying the universe levels, is it?”

The Doctor laughed.

“Don't let your boss hear that.”

“He took me aside a while ago, actually, informing me that I'm dating a... I think the word he used was 'Psychopath'. By no means the correct definition of the term, but what do you expect from these people.”

The Doctor frowned.

“Have they... met you?”

Snorting, the Master had to finally give up his pretence of reading and let the book sink, throwing his head back laughing.

“I know! It's quite funny, that, isn't it? What a turn.”

“How did they know about us, anyway?”

The Master grinned.

“They're having you followed ever since you stormed their department with the _wrong_ robber. Come on, you're such a _genius_ , you can't tell me you didn't notice?”

“Oh.”

The Doctor actually blushed slightly, it was quite cute.

“And what did you tell him?”

“I told him that I knew perfectly well who and what I was dating and that everything's gonna be fine. And to send me some of the photos they take of you.”

They stared at each other silently, before both burst out into laughter.

“I'm really making a name for myself,” the Doctor grumbled after a while, but he didn't seem too bothered, as he stretched out on the Master's lap a little more, hands finding his hip. He let his fingers circle over the bare skin, just over the hem of his purple boxer shorts, writing Gallifreyan symbols onto his stomach. “How much longer?”

The Master didn't have to ask what he meant, he simply shrugged.

“6 years, 8 weeks and 23 days.”

The Doctor hummed.

“That's basically nothing.”

The Master put a hand underneath his chin, raising the Doctor's face up towards him.

“Better make the best out of it, then.”


End file.
